First look at South Carolina football’s gameday entrance in new EA Sports video game

South Carolina fans got an early look at the team’s gameday entrance in the new EA Sports “College Football 25” video game over the weekend ... with one big change.

Cocky’s in the game. “Sandstorm” is in the game. Towel waving is in the game.

But, at least in the initial version of “College Football 25” provided to content creators for early access, the “2001” song that usually accompanies the Gamecocks’ entrance for home games at Williams-Brice Stadium is not present.

Ahead of the game’s Friday release (and Monday early release for those who bought the deluxe editions), gameplay clips of “College Football 25” started leaking out over the weekend from various media members and content creators who’ve played.

A clip of USC’s entrance ahead of a rivalry game versus Clemson showed Cocky strutting around, fans waving towels, flames shooting up during South Carolina’s entrance and a packed stadium — but it was “Sandstorm” playing in the background of USC’s run-out instead of “2001.”

Although the reasoning for that omission isn’t clear, and the song could always be added in a future update, The Athletic had previously reported that some songs wouldn’t be in “College Football 25” because of licensing issues.

South Carolina, of course, doesn’t own the audio rights to the original “2001” song it plays during home games. That music — Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” — comes from the opening theme music of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi movie classic, and must be licensed separately.

USC provided information on its “2001” run-out in an audio spreadsheet file it sent to EA Sports, The State previously reported, but submitting such information to game developers did not guarantee that it would show up in “College Football 25.”

South Carolina fans also pointed out that the student section was waving black towels (versus white towels) and the band was wearing black (they usually wear white) for the team entrance, smaller design errors that could be updated at a later date.

Nitty gritty details aside, the game has drawn massive hype, especially in recent months, as its release date draws near. “College Football 25” marks the first new game in 11 years in the beloved series previously known as “NCAA Football.”

The most recent game, “NCAA Football 14,” came out in summer 2013 before the series went on hiatus amid various lawsuits surrounding the use of college athletes’ names, images and likenesses in video games without permission or compensation.

The NCAA approving NIL compensation for athletes in summer 2021 cleared the way for the game (initially announced as returning in some form in February 2021) to come back in full.

EA Sports underwent an exhaustive information-gathering process for all 134 Division I FBS schools that continued through this year, with the Clemson and South Carolina athletic departments both contributing significantly.

July 19 (this Friday) is the “worldwide launch date” for the game. It’ll be available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (the most recent consoles for those brands).

It will not be available to play on PC or any previous versions of the PlayStation and Xbox consoles.